Hailey Peterson New Media and Communication Professor DoughertyOctober 9th, 2014Media Diet Paper Louis C.K. once said, in an interview with Conan, “ you need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something, that’s what the phones are taking away—the ability to just sit there and be a person.” Before I started this Media Diet Project I questioned if my brain, that’s so engrained with checking updates and posting on social media, would be able to find an identity outside of that forum. Because the media shapes so much of who we are today it’s difficult to see yourself and who you are without it. But in the words of Louis C.K. the ability to just sit there IS what makes us humane. After days of changing my media usage by limiting myself to 3 updates a day for a 72 hour period I forced myself to use regressing forms of entertainment such as books and journals and reflected on the feelings of my limitation as well as the responses I felt while using these different forums. I came to find that with limited media usage I felt more centered, less connected to communities but contrarily more interactive and felt minimal purpose in experiencing life’s gifts. Through reading books and sitting down with my thoughts I felt intrinsically more centered and at peace with myself. Without a personal profile telling me who I was via Internet, I was able to appreciate my identity and ability to live simply. Journaling has this capacity to help you identify yourself through your own thoughts and words without relying on a self-built profile consisting of interests, posts, activities and experiences that you believe will receive praise. In Motoko Rich’s article “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” he discusses the controversial evolution of reading. Millenials have relied on the Internet and its sources for their daily dose of reading and writing but Rich questions if this has in turn effected our comprehension, attentions spans and overall literacy. While some argue that the Internet is the intellectual’s enemy, I concluded a differing opinion with my testing. I didn’t see a difference in attentional inhibition—the ability to concentrate on the task at hand, because for me everything is a distraction. Distraction is not a new word that has accumulated through the use of media; we as a society are continuously sidetracked whether it is through the Internet or our physical surroundings. But there’s definitely something to be said about picking up a physical book and flipping through physical pages. Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wrote in a report that the benefits of new media “provide no measurable substitute for the intellectual and personal development initiated and sustained by frequent reading.” Through my findings I concluded that the difference between using the Internet as a forum and reading as a forum is that the Internet builds my identity as a journalist and physical books and journaling build my identity as a writer. Both necessary and purposeful in their own right. During the moments when I was first unable to retort to media updates I felt a lot less connected to the world around me. The media has an ability to make its user feel like a part of the bigger whole through its sense of “Internet community.” This social media community is always there through the convenience of the web. But without it I felt more individual and less significant—a mere speck in the existence, because I wasn’t a part of this ever-growing society made possible by social media. But after the first day of my media diet I had a revelation. Without social media and the constant push of your unlock button, you have an opportunity for new social interactions. I was now forced to observe my surroundings, noticing things on my daily walk to class that was once a blur in my peripheral. The feeling of disconnect subsided as I realized this limitation gave me the opportunity to be connected with my physical surroundings. I was forced to start awkward before-class conversations because I could no longer rely on my phone or laptop to save me from the silence. This was an instance when I felt in complete control of my social interaction instead of reluctantly trusting my control in the hands of the Internet. In Douglas Rushkoff’s “Program or be Programmed,” the discussion of effective use through personal choice arises. Rushkoff explores this idea of efficient use by explaining the beneficial use of media as a resource of choice in contrast with the detrimental use of letting the Internet control you. There have been so many moments during my online interactions that I felt helpless, letting the Internet control my emotions, interactions, word choice, and so much more. But in my moments of silence and loneliness I felt more in control of my choices. During this time of media limitation, I felt the purpose in experiencing life was diminished by my inability to share it with the web. Social media sites were originally programmed to provide the people with the means to document their experiences while shooting them to hundreds of followers or friends at once. But because of the prominence that social media now holds in our everyday lives, we experience life in order to document it, instead of documenting it because we experienced it. Because of this our cyber identity seems to define us more than our own personal identity. Instagram introduced the destructive thinking of “if I don’t post it, did it ever really happen?” We are so programmed to document our every move that we don’t take the time to just absorb the moment in which we are so anxiously recording. During a Chet Faker concert, Faker insisted or should I say demanded his audience to put down their phones and just enjoy the moment. It was a refreshing juncture that I’ll never forget. With my testing, I found a long lost ability to take advantage of the beauty in a moment. “The media life perspective starts from the realization that the whole of the world and our lived experience in it are framed by, mitigated through, and made immediate by media,” said Deuze, Blank, and Speers in the Digital Humanities Quarterly: A Life Lived in Media—reiterating my finding that our life experiences are shaped by media. With my thought-provoking findings I pondered if the benefits of media use outweighed the downfalls. But I think the issue is so varied that there will be no time in which we could ever have a true answer. But I’ve found that the Internet has capabilities to shape its users identity, sense of community and idea of new literacy. It’s refreshing to step away from the screen and look up at your surroundings. It’s refreshing to take the time to use “ancient” mediums as a way to free yourself from boredom. But it is also inevitably necessary with the progressing state of technology to use media as a prominent resource. You are capable to integrate your identity shaped by the digital world and your identity shaped by the physical world to intermix and create your whole identity.

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Field Notes: While noting my media use throughout the past weeks, I’ve jotted down a few things that I noticed while doing so: *I tend to spend most of my time on media sites at night because during the day I have more face-to-face social interaction i.e. work, school, hanging out with friends, grabbing lunch, etc. *I usually use my phone to check social media during the day on my breaks such as my walking periods between classes, or my lunch breaks at work. -I immediately check social media when I get free time. *I spend most of my time browsing the web at home, again during my free time. *I went through a lot of different emotions while checking my media, depending on the reaction I had to people’s posts. *Other people react to my use very generically because if I post anything on Facebook or Instagram it’s usually just photos, so I get the typical “<33” and “your mom and you look so much alike! Such pretty girls!” *I noticed a lot of ranting on Facebook and a lot of “thin” tweets now that I read Silver’s article. *I don’t pay attention to the ads at all, unless it’s a site that I was just on and then I see an ad for it on the side of my Facebook feed. *I noticed that I don’t really interact that much on the sites as much as I just browse and update myself on what other people are up to. *I noticed that I’m particularly judgmental of articles that are posted because I question the credibility of the source, being a journalism major. *I tend to look at the sidebar that says trending on Facebook because it usually have big news events or something of substance, unlike the rest of my feed. *I feel a lot of comfort looking at old friends or even strangers and seeing people lives progress and grow. *My intentions for use are mostly just to update myself on current happenings anything from news events or what my friends just did this past weekend. *If I do comment or communicate through social media it’s usually between people whom I’m really close with if not with already (haha). *I noticed that I stay on sites for quite a while and I don’t do a lot of back and forth switching through different websites.

Video Capture: Using Camtasia I noticed that I like to share a lot of the things I see on the web. For instance, as I was browsing I came across the Emma Watson UN Speech on feminism and I had my roommates come watch it after me. I found the video extremely inspirational, and I knew that my friends would feel the same. I also noticed that I seem so stoic and almost as if I’m not mentally existent when I browse through the web. It definitely has a trance in which I get lost. But there are moments of reaction and emotion in between the many moments of resignation. Walkthrough: While watching my walkthrough back, I noticed that most of my physical interaction is focused on “liking.” I don’t really comment much or use the media to start conversation. I mostly use my social media sites in order to journal my thoughts, inspirations, and photos. I realized that there is a thought process that goes behind deciding to interact or “like” media. I noticed that a lot of my interaction depends on the status of my relationship with that person. I am more likely to comment or notice my good friends or families content. While browsing, I decided whether or not I want to like something based off of how other people will react. Summary: Most of my use on the Internet was during the night, when I got time to just relax. But during the day, I connect to the web with my phone, checking my social media sites in between classes or during my lunch break at work. I was still consistently browsing the web throughout the day. But at night, when I could sit down on the couch with my laptop and a cup of tea, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the sites and actually click on the articles and videos that grab my attention. I noticed the main habit that I have with social media use, is ironically enough, retorting to the web out of habit and boredom. I’m constantly picking up my phone, checking it, and realizing I just checked it minutes before. But strangely my excessive use doesn’t lead to excessive communication and response from me. I came to find that I check my phone and connect to the Internet when I have free time, anytime I get the chance to check it, I will. But I’m checking it for pure entertainment and stalking pretty much. I learned that most of my use was me browsing through peoples pages or pictures and updating myself on what everyone is doing or thinking at the moment. But I rarely respond to what I see. Therefore if I do post, a lot of my posts are generic—acting as a journal. My intentions for use are not very interactively driven. Which makes me question the importance of the media. When I first starting using social media I was using it for the sole purpose of communicating, and now I’ve dimmed down my use to practically “creeping,” without much interaction if any. I also noticed that because I have been instilled with this policy to check my sources, I am constantly questioning the source of my information. If a friend of mine posted an article from the Huffington Post, and another friend posted one from CNN I’m more likely to read the CNN article because I know I can trust the information to be more reliable. For me, browsing through the web was a constant question of what source am I going to use and why. Which kind of contradicts the whole idea of the web being a place for a stream of information. If you’re only going to certain places to receive that information, you’re not getting different perspectives or an overarching look at an idea. Instead your information base is narrowed, but credible. A huge pattern was avoiding interaction due to how other people will react or how well I know the person who is outputting the information. I was constantly justifying why I was interested in interacting with something based on who posted it instead of interacting with the post based on how interesting or intriguing it was to me. Proposal: For my proposal I am interesting in delving deeper into basing my interaction off of personal relations. I am hoping to actively participate in responding to posts that interest me and boast a reaction out of me, instead of participating because of my personal relationships. This means liking and commenting on someone’s photo because I find it attractive, not because I know the person who posted it. After responding to whatever interests me, I am going to monitor and track others’ responses to my new media use. Part two of my proposal is to limit my use out of boredom. I am going to try to redirect my habit of browsing the Internet out of boredom and instead sit down with a book or do something that is more “productive.” I am hoping to limit my use to 3 times a day, which includes reloading social media sites. After doing so I will journal my reactions to the web after that day and my reaction to other forms that I turn to to relieve my boredom.